Korean Daily News itself commented on the decision in the following manner. "The effect of the judgment is that for a period of six months this newspaper will be gagged, and therefore no further reports of Japanese reverses can be published in our columns."[1] The Japanese authorities also made note of this with satisfaction and stated that "after Bethell's case the articles of the Taehan Maeil Simbo changed their outlook."[2]
The case against Bethell did not stop here. According to Ito, the first Japanese resident-general in Korea, Bethell, not having changed his attitude, again became vindictive in 1908, "instigating disturbances, encouraging treason, and inducing assassination."[3] A Japanese official report also stated that as soon as the six months' term of good behavior expired, Bethell's papers again showed "seditious activity" by publishing "incendiary comments on 'the Murder of Mr. Stevens,' and on 'Prince Metternich'; or under the captions of 'Why Hesitate?,' 'Songs of Appeal,' 'Flowers of the Educational World,' etc."[4]
Bethell was again brought into court on June 15, 1908, to answer a complaint laid before the British consular court by the Japanese authorities. This time the defendant was represented by counsel and the proceedings were presided over by Judge Bourne of Shanghai. The counsel for the defendant applied to have the case heard before a jury, but the application was refused. After several days' deliberation, during which Yang Ki-ta'ek, Bethell's Korean sub-editor, testified for Bethell, Bethell was sentenced to imprisonment for three weeks and required subsequently "to give security for good behavior during six months or to be deported." He was immediately sent to Shanghai after the trial to serve his sentence, and his papers were entrusted to his colleague, Marnham.
What amounted to the finishing touch for Bethell's cause came a little later. Bethell with his Korean sub-editor was charged with embezzlement of public funds. In February, 1907, under the leadership of a member of the conservative faction in the Korean court, Yun Ung-yul, an association called the National Foreign Debt Reimbursement was organized in Taeku, north Kyongsang province in south
Korea.[5] The association urged that, if 20,000 ,000 Koreans saved twenty
- ↑ Cited in McKenzie, op. cit., 244.
- ↑ Maruyama to Ito, Nov. 6, 1907, JA(Korea) 344, p. 2.
- ↑ Ito to Hayashi, May 1, 1908, ibid., 289, pp. 4-8. Also see Annual Report (1908-1909), 88.
- ↑ Loc. cit.
- ↑ "Kankoku Chiho Seikyo (Local Political Situation in Korea)," Ito to Hayashi, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Archives (Library of Congress Microfilm), MT 1.5.3.11, pp. 122-138. (This Japanese Foreign Office Documentary collection now in deposit at the Library of Congress in microfilm is hereafter cited at "Japanese Foreign Office (microfilms)".)
